Sail of the century

SALES, not sails, have rounded the half-way mark at the Crosshaven seaside village development Brightwater, with showhouses opening this weekend in plenty of time for the biennial Ford Cork Week.

The sailing extravaganza with a flotilla of 500 craft and a party-mad entourage of thousands of hangers-on hits the Cork harbour village from July 9. Visitors coming back to 'Crosser' by boat, air or road will note a transformation of the village in just the last two years alone.

Over 100 new houses and apartments have been built, and the biggest scheme of them all, Brightwater, has over 70 sales recorded of the total of 125 homes to be built.

And, according to Brightwater selling agent Trish Stokes of Sherry FitzGerald, while the expectation was that buyers would be lured to Crosshaven for the lifestyle options, with good sports facilities to hand, beaches over the hill and several sailing marinas, the bulk of buyers to date has been local.

"We were surprised to realise just how much local demand there was for people to buy new homes in Crosshaven. A lot of people had previously moved up to Carrigaline because there weren't houses being built in Crosshaven, but since we started on site last July many have sold up in Carrigaline and moved back to Crosshaven," she noted.

She is now launching phase three of Brightwater, where there are 10 house types, ranging from two-bed 755 sq ft townhouses priced at €240,000 (up from a reported launch price last year of €190,000) to four-bed homes of 1,729 sq ft at €450,000.

'D' type end or semi-detached houses of 1,285 sq ft are priced at €305,000 to €315,000, smaller 'E' type three bed semis are €280,000, and three-bed mid-terrace townhouses of 1,100 sq ft are €260,000. Three different showhouses open this weekend, from 3 to 5.00pm, and two further showhouses are close to completion, said Ms Stokes.

Developers are O'Flynn Construction, and design is by Dennehy & Dennehy Designs.